1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic vehicle headlight beam direction adjustment system for automatically adjusting the beam directions or illumination regions in directions of left and right on the basis of headlights provided at a vehicle in accordance with a steering angle of a steering wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, as related art relating to an automatic vehicle headlight beam direction adjustment system, the one disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-254980 has been known. This discloses technology for reducing the effect of detection error due to the sensor elements in particular in the navigation function of a navigation system and securing suitable beam illumination.
In the above, the illumination regions or glares of the headlights are controlled in accordance with the determination of the running region of the vehicle based on the front road information comprised of map information, vehicle position, etc. from the navigation system and the beam directions of the headlights are controlled in accordance with determination of the road shape.
Here, the front road information from the navigation system is not necessarily accurate, so the control quantity based on the front road information may be unsuitable. This being the case, the illumination regions, glares, or beam directions of the headlights will continue to be unsuitably adjusted in accordance with the control quantity based on the front road information from the navigation system.
However, in the above, when controlling the illumination regions, glares, or beam directions of the headlights, the control is not swivel control making the beam directions of the headlights swivel in the left-right directions parallel to the horizontal direction for adjustment, so even if the illumination regions, glares, or beam directions of the headlights become unsuitable, the front visibility of the driver is not remarkably impaired.
As opposed to this, assume that in swivel control making the beam directions of the headlights swivel in the left-right directions parallel to the horizontal direction for adjustment in advance based on front road information from the navigation system, despite the front road in the direction of advance of the vehicle being straight, a misunderstanding has arisen that the road is a turn due to an error of the front road information comprised of map information, vehicle position, etc. from the navigation system. In this case, the problem arises that by the beam directions of the headlights continuing to be adjusted in mistaken directions in accordance with a control quantity based on front road information from the navigation system, the front visibility of the driver is seriously impaired.
An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic vehicle headlight beam direction adjustment system able to quickly learn of errors in front road information from a navigation system and prevent continued adjustment of the beam directions of the headlights in mistaken directions so as to quickly restore the front visibility of the driver in swivel control making the beam directions of the headlights swivel in left-right directions parallel to the horizontal direction for adjustment in advance of front road information from the navigation system.